Minna Salami

Minna Salami (born 1978) is a Finnish Nigerian journalist and owner/editor of the website MsAfropolitan.com, which she created in 2010 to write on themes "ranging from polygamy to feminism to relationships". She was also a regular contributor to ''The Guardian'' and contributed two articles to Aljazeera.com. She is a member of the Global Educator Network of Duke University, the Africa Network and ''The Guardian'' Books Network.

Biography

Salami was born in Finland in 1978 to a Nigerian father and a Finnish mother. She was in Nigeria during her youth before she went to Sweden for higher studies. She graduated from Lund University, Sweden, with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Political Science, and from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) with a Master of Arts degree (MA). In 2016, she participated at the Hong Kong Baptist University International Writers’ Workshop as a fellow. She is proficient in five languages and has lived in Nigeria, Sweden, Spain, New York and London. She operates from London.

Initially, after her education, Salami started her career as a marketing business executive, dealing with branding and management of products. She worked in many countries. Thereafter she founded the blog ''MsAfropolitan'' in 2010. It deals with issues related to Nigeria and the diaspora on feminist issues. Concurrently, for two years until 2012, she also promoted the ''MsAfropolitan Boutique'', in recognition of the African Women's Decade 2010–2020. This online boutique sold many heritage goods of Africa, manufactured by women of Africa. In an interview with the "Weekend Magazine", Salami elaborating on the objective of her establishing the Ms.Afropolitan blog, stated: "Blogs about African society were male-dominant and the feminist blogs I came across were Eurocentric. Most of the African feminist writing I encountered was either academic or fiction writing. It was brilliant work...but I longed to read popular cultural commentary about Africa from a feminist angle and commentary about feminism from an African angle." She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''New Daughters of Africa'', edited by Margaret Busby.

In 2019, Salami joined the Activate Collective an intersectional feminist movement that seeks to raise money for minoritised women political candidates and community activists. In 2020, the Activate Collective announced it would fund 11 women running for five different parties in the spring local and mayoral elections across five regions of England – London, the Midlands, North East, North West, and Yorkshire and Humber. The list includes eight women of colour, one disabled woman and one care leaver. Seven of the 11 women are from low-income households or identify as working-class.

Salami also works as a consultant, in the digital medium, to TVC News, a pan-African news channel. She is represented on the board of the UK charity For Books' Sake and a UK-based think tank.

Published work

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Rankings and awards

* "40 Under 40 Changemakers" by ''Applause Africa''
* "Nigeria's 100 most influential women" by ''YNaija''
* "Top 100 Most Influential Black People on Digital/Social Media" by Eelan Media.
* "Outstanding Achievement in Media" award in 2013, which is an Africa Diaspora Award
* Women 4 Africa 2013 "Blogger of the Year" award
* ''RED Magazine'' listed her as "Blogger of the Year" for 2012.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Salami, Minna
1978 births
Alumni of SOAS University of London
Finnish activists
Finnish bloggers
Finnish journalists
Finnish people of Nigerian descent
Finnish women activists
Finnish women bloggers
Finnish women journalists
Living people
Lund University alumni
Nigerian activists
Nigerian bloggers
Nigerian journalists
Nigerian women activists
Nigerian women bloggers
Nigerian women journalists